Page 64 of Enemy Games

Hunter was waiting for me, wearing a denim jacket over a white T-shirt and khaki pants. He looked like a model, with his hands in his pockets and a slight frown pulling at his lips until he looked up and saw me. His whole face lit up, and I couldn't help but smile back.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

He opened the door and led me down the sidewalk, then headed back toward campus.

“I wanted to take you somewhere nice, but I don't have a car, so we are kind of limited on options.”

“I don't mind. I haven't been to the theater on campus.” I was pretty sure I still hadn’t seen most of campus. I didn’t have much free time to explore, so getting to see a new area was exciting.

“Have you tried the cafe near the science building?”

“No, I haven't. Is it different from all the others?”

“Yeah, they call it a cafe, but it's not necessarily just coffee and drinks. It has really good soups and sandwiches. I was thinking we could eat there before heading to see the movie.”

He’d put way more thought into this than I expected. Then again, getting dinner with a friend was incredibly normal. Nothing to overthink.

“That sounds great.”

See, we could do this. We could be normal. We could have casual conversation without either of us bringing up the past.

By the time our food was ready, the awkwardness passed.

“Can I make a proposition?” He asked before picking up his sandwich.

“Sure,” I waited, curious where this was going.

“Can this be a true first date? Two people without any history?” The way his lip twitched at the corner I could tell he was nervous about my response.

“Nothing before college?”

He nodded, “Yeah.”

“So why did you pick Communications?” I jumped right into the conversation, and he immediately relaxed back into his chair.

“I expected to have to do a lot of interviews, and I wanted to understand where the journalist would be coming from.”

Huh. That was actually pretty smart.

“If you didn’t play hockey, what do you think you’d want to major in?” Did he have any other interests? I couldn’t remember him mentioning anything.

“I’m not sure I would have even gone to college. I’ve never been great at school, and I can’t imagine sitting at a desk for the rest of my life. I probably would have learned a trade, something to keep me moving and using my hands.”

I never would have guessed that. He helped me with my classes, after all. Maybe he was being hard on himself, or he really did get by with the help of his teammates.

“That’s really cool. Would you have wanted to stay in New York?”

“Nah,” he grinned. “It’s too cold.”

“So you don’t want to go back one day?”

“Do you?” He challenged. “I don’t have anything drawing me back. I certainly don’t want to be around my dad.”

Did I want to move back? After the game there, I knew how people felt about me returning. I didn’t want to subject myself to that again.

“I wouldn’t mind living close to my parents, but no, I don’t want to go back either.”